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July 01, 2008

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I have a story up today on what the NRA will do to try to defeat Obama and how they hope the Heller decision will energize gun owners.

The National Rifle Association plans to spend about $40 million on this year’s campaign, with $15 million of that devoted to portraying Barack Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment rights upheld last week by the Supreme Court.

“Our members understand that if Barack Obama is elected president, and he has support in the Senate to confirm anti-gun Supreme Court nominees, [the District of Columbia v. Heller decision] could be taken away from us in the future,” Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s political arm, told Politico.

The politically powerful gun rights group will split its message efforts between communicating with its 4 million members and the tens of millions more firearms owners across the country.

This fall, NRA members will get automated phone calls, mail pieces and pre-election editions of the group’s three magazines making the case against Obama. More broadly, the group will use an independent expenditure effort to hammer the Democratic nominee via TV, radio and newspaper ads in some of about 15 battleground states in the Midwest and Mountain West.

“We look forward to showing him ‘bitter,’” Cox said, referring to Obama’s statement this spring that some in rural America “cling” to guns and religion out of bitterness.

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This is why it is so important that McCain's VP pick be a true conservative. The push by Romney to be Mac's selection would destory the conservative movement. Romney was anti gun as governor of Massachusetts, mocking gun owners and the NRA. His flip on the issue is meaningless and disheartening to think that he has fooled anyone to believe he is a true conservative. THERE are far better candidates out there than Romney like Jindal, Pawlenty, Palin, and Portman.
Other bloggers have it right about Romney and his shameless self promotion to the new media. Seems the guy has never ending money to promote himself. Yech.

Too bad the Heller decision is all smoke and mirrors. Handguns are legal, but semiautomatic firearms (which are far more prevalent) are still banned. The NRA's "victory" is pretty hollow. And Wayne la Pierre's vision of himself as a "regular guy" (so he can attack "bitter") is just ridiculous. The guy earns almost $1 million a year.

With 58% of ALL gun deaths each year in the US either suicides (55%) or accidental shooting (3%). I'd say the NRA has a right to life problem. People are more likely to kill themselves or have their children accidentally killing other children with their own guns than use it in protecting themselves from crime. So if you want your own gun, go right ahead. It doesn't matter to me.

AND THIS IS WHY PUBLIC FINANCING WAS A NON ISSUE. Who cares if the candidate has 84M to spend when his fat cat friends are loaded. The Republican fear machine is going strong: Obama's gonna take my guns, melt them down, sell the raw metal, and give that money to those on welfare. I don't understand this INTENSE OUTRAGE at poor people receiving handouts from government. And this total lack of OUTRAGE at corporations feeding at the trough of government. Sounds like overt classism/racism to me. War profiteering good, Costplus pricing good, no bid contracts good- HEY HOLD ON, IS THAT POOR GUY GETTING 100 DOLLARS A WEEK? WHOA. WHOA. WHOA!

Wasted money, that could be going to help, people with natural disasters, red cross, gas, economy, mortagages and all the other things people will need so desperately by November. That tells you about mccain and people who support mccain. People wake up, the Republicans don't care about you no matter what Ben and Jonathan write in their articles.
We will wake up smelling gun smoke instead of coffee.